Seven Last Words of Christ

The Seven Sayings and Their Texts

The words that Jesus Christ spoke on the cross are distributed across the four Gospels. No single Gospel contains all seven sayings. The order below is the traditional arrangement, which harmonizes the four Gospel accounts.

• Forgiveness: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
• The promise of paradise: Spoken to one of the criminals crucified with him: "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43).
• Entrusting his mother: Spoken to Mary and to the disciple whom he loved: "Woman, behold thy son!" and "Behold thy mother!" (John 19:26-27).
• The cry of abandonment: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" (Matthew 27:46). Mark records it as "Eloi, Eloi" (Mark 15:34).
• Thirst: "I thirst" (John 19:28).
• Completion: "It is finished" (John 19:30).
• Commitment: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46).

Background

The crucifixion took place at Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem. The Gospels report that darkness covered the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour (Mark 15:33-37). The fourth saying means "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Some of the bystanders mistook these words for a call to Elijah (Matthew 27:47). The Greek word behind the sixth saying, tetelestai, means "it is ended" or "it is accomplished."

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The fourth saying quotes Psalm 22:1, and the seventh quotes Psalm 31:5. John's Gospel explains that Jesus said "I thirst" "that the scripture might be fulfilled" (John 19:28). For this reason, these sayings have been read as fulfilling Old Testament psalms about the suffering righteous one. The prayer of forgiveness in the first saying resembles the prayer offered by Stephen at his martyrdom (Acts 7:60).

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• The first saying: This verse is reportedly absent from some early manuscripts, and several translations note this in a footnote.
• The fourth saying: Many interpreters, including those in the Reformed tradition, hold that Christ, bearing sin in the place of sinners, actually experienced the judgment of being forsaken by God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Others place greater weight on the saying as a quotation that calls to mind the whole of Psalm 22, which ends in trust and deliverance.
• The second saying: Most Protestants and the Catholic Church understand it to mean immediate entrance into paradise after death. Jehovah's Witnesses attach "to day" to the preceding words, reading it as "I say unto thee to day."
• The third saying: Catholic tradition sees Mary in this scene as the mother of the Church. Protestants generally read it as an expression of a son's duty to care for his mother.
• Later traditions: The names given to the criminals and the identification of the beloved disciple with John derive from later tradition; the text itself does not name them. The order of the seven sayings is likewise traditional.

In the Life of the Church

In Korean churches, sermon series meditating on the seven sayings one by one are commonly preached during Holy Week, at special dawn prayer meetings or Good Friday services. In church music, Joseph Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross is widely known.